NAROWAL: Unruly young passengers harass, in routine, women and families travelling by the train on the Narowal-Lahore section, while the Pakistan Railways has failed to control the situation.

Incidents of the unruly youth using mobile phones to take pictures, making videos of women and harassing them are happening frequently allegedly without any checks.

This scribe travelled on the Faiz Ahmad Faiz Express, a passenger train running between Narowal and Lahore, for a couple of days and was an eyewitness to the incidents of harassment and bad behaviour of the youths.

The eyewitnesses told the correspondent that such incidents were daily occurrences on the express train that departs daily from Lahore at 7:15pm. Groups of youth work as labourers in factories and at business points in Lahore frequently travel on the train, mostly without buying any tickets. They abuse railway contractor employees as well who are afraid to take any action.

On May 24, 2024, Muhammad Amin, a resident of Baddomalhi town, along with his wife and daughters boarded the train departing from Lahore at 7:15pm. A group of rowdy youths started harassing the family. Amin said the youth harassed the women of his family by using abusive language and passing bad comments. He said the young men took pictures of his family with their mobile phones.

“When I and other passengers forbade them from misbehaviour and harassment, they started quarreling and abusing us. When I complained to the security guard on the train, he did not give any response,” Amin said.

Two young girls who identified themselves as Asma Shirazi and Tahira Farid said they were students of the Punjab University and travelled to Narowal on the 7:15pm train from Lahore to go to their homes on weekends.

“These unruly young men get off the train at Sri Rampur, Kala Khatai and Narang Mandi railway stations. The people take the bad behaviour of the youth as normal,” they lamented.

Muhammad Irshad said that on May 27, he was coming from Lahore to Narowal when he saw some young men harassing the women on the train. “When I asked them not to do it, they abused me and threatened to throw me off the train,” he complained.

Passengers Muhammad Ashraf and Faisal Ali said these youths would occupy the seats of the passenger train even before the start of journey and they would not leave any space for women and families.

Passengers Shamshad Akhtar and Asia Bibi termed the youths as gangsters who would occupy all the bogies and touch bodies of women in the rush.

The passengers said they complained to the railways staff about the harassment of women many times but no action was taken.

Hanif Gul, the divisional superintendent railways, was contacted by mobile phone to take the version of the railways but he gave no response.

A railways spokesman told the Dawn reporter in Lahore that the Narowal train had been outsourced by the department and it was the responsibility of the contractor to ensure safety of passengers. He said the Pakistan Railways had not received any complaint about the issue at the divisional and headquarters level. He said passengers could file complaints with the railways admin and assured that they would be addressed promptly.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2024